The Fine Hand
In 1847, twelve gambas were discovered in a Canadian monastery, hidden behind a wall since the ‘Battle of Quebec’ (1759). What music had been played on these instruments? In a six-piece formation, The Fine Hand sketches a sound map of North America’s colonial music history: French baroque, Cajun songs, psalms from New Orleans and folk dances from Acadia. A search for forgotten connections with the only collection preserved from that period as a charter.
Programme
-
The Wail of the Forest
Prologue
Murmuring Ever of Love -
Traditional
A la claire Fontaine
-
Anonymous
Trip to scarbray
(From: Vickers MS) -
Claude Balbastre
Tous les bourgeois de Châtres
1724-1799 -
Traditional
Le carillon de Dunkerque
-
André Campra
Tota pulchra es
(From: Cantiques Spirituels, Musical Manuscript of the Ursuline Archives, Quebec)1660-1744 -
Traditional
Derrière chez nous
-
Scattered Like Dust and Leaves
-
Stan Rogers
Barrett’s privateers
1949-1983 -
Traditional
Etoile du nord
-
Louis Marchand
Ce monde est une vaste mer
(From: Recueil d’airs spirituels des Ursulines, New Orleans 1736)1669-1732 -
Exile Without an End
-
Traditional
La belle délaissée
A la claire fontaine -
They Gave Themselves to the Maddening Whirl of the Dizzy Dance
-
Traditional
Valse a pop
Je me suis marille
J’ai cu le loup -
Pursuing a phantom
-
Bénigne de Bacilly / Jacquez Martin Hotteterre
Echo, qui repondez
(From: Recueil d’airs spirituels)1621-1690 / 1674-1763 -
Marin Marais
Agréable solitude
(From: Recueil d’airs spirituels)1656-1728 -
Oh, My Beloved!
-
William Billings
Newport
Lebanon
(From: The Psalm-Singers Amusement, Boston 1781)1746-1800 -
Traditional
La belle delaissée
-
In Accents Disconsolate, the Ocean Answers the Wail of the Forest
Epilogue
Programme subject to change
Musicians
- Elizabeth Sommers fiddle, baroque violin, viola da gamba, voice
- Vincent Kibildis harp, voice
- Leonardo Bortolotto viola da gamba, voice
- Thomas Baeté viola da gamba, voice
- Mara Winter flute, gaita, voice
- Anne-Kathryn Olsen viola da gamba, voice
